Shameful Human of the Week: Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, the controversial voice for Christian conservatives whose name I will forever confuse with Robert Pattinson’s is this week’s Shameful Human.

Robertson claimed on his program The 700 Club last week that Haiti’s recent earthquake, which has caused the deaths of tens of thousands, was the result of a deal made with the Devil to secure the nation’s independence from the French.

You see, the catalyst of the Haitian slave revolt of 1791 was a Voodoo ceremony in which animals were sacrificed, and as we all know, for Robertson-style Christians, the religions of others are a quick stroll from Devil worship.

Interestingly, Robertson neglected the historical context of his claim that I have provided, which probably left his viewers scrambling to fill in the holes for themselves. Like maybe he’s saying that those pesky black people should have known their place and stayed the slaves of the great Christian white man. For Robertson, I guess it’s better to be the slave of a Christian than free and without Christianity.

Robertson followed up his insane claim with the statement “they need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God,” expressing his hope to capitalize on tragedy by spreading his particular brand of wingnut to the people of Haiti.

Even if Robertson did not intend there to be any racist subtext in his remarks, he still implied that all of this suffering is actually the fault (no pun intended) of the victims of this natural disaster, rather than the shifting of tectonic plates. That is a remarkable, even stunningly ignorant misrepresentation of reality which can only serve to further harm Haitians.

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